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Waterloo campaign
The Waterloo campaign began when Emperor Napoleon I invaded Belgium with his army of the North to defeat the Anglo-Allied forces of the Duke of Wellington and the Prussian army under Blucher. Napoleon hoped that a great victory might restore his military reputation, whilst confirming his political status within France. The French Emperor also believed that a swift success might deter the allies from marching upon France or even topple the coalition against him. With four great battles spread over as many days, Quatre Bras, Ligny, Wavre and, of course, Waterloo, Napoleon's dream of restoring his fortunes was shattered when the campaign reached its dramatic climax at the Battle of Waterloo on the 18th June 1815. Resulting from the unwavering cooperation of Wellington and Blucher, Napoleon suffered a defeat so crushing that his credibility was irretrievably lost, for upon returning to Paris he was forced to abdicate a second time. The political and military career of arguably, history's greatest soldier was over and with it his dreams of Empire. Only the humiliation and suffering of his final years in exile on Saint Helena beckoned, but even then he was not idle, for with the time that was left to him, he laboured to construct the Napoleonic Legend which still blazes bright today. Prelude Napoleon's audacious march upon Paris in the spring of 1815 to regain his imperial crown and to restore his Empire, must surely rank as one of the boldest ventures ever undertook by a single man, even for a man of his towering stature. It's stunning success crowned himwith fresh glory and he later recalled his triumphant entry into Paris as the happiest day of his life as he was swept up in triumph and borne up into the grandeur of the Tuilleries amid the frenzied adulation of the people. The Hundred days had begun. To the Allies meeting at the Congress of Vienna, seeking to turn back the clock and redress the map of Europe after two decades of incessant war, Napoleon's return was greeted with rather less enthusiasm and despite their bickering over whom should receive what, which threatened to fracture their tenuous alliance, they placed aside their differences to declare war on their common enemy; Napoleon Bonaparte. Not France, but one man, and they pledged to remain in the field until he was utterly and finally defeated, each agreeing to provide 200,000 men. Upon learning of Napoleon's return, Joachim Murat, King of Naples rushed off to offer his services to his former master. In 1814, Murat had betrayed Napoleon by siding with the Allies in the hopes of securing his kingdom as the French Empire collapsed. Subsequently, after Napoleon's defeat the treacherous Murat had become only too aware that his tenure of Naples was temporary; that the Allies intended at some point to usurp his kingdom, hence his return to Napoleon, knowing he must stand or fall with his former master. Once he had regained his throne, Napoleon quickly found that circumstances within France had changed. He was no longer the spoiled child of victory, but one man amongst many. He sensed a new mood sweeping France. The optimstic enthusiasm of the glory years of the Empire had vanished, to be replaced by a yearning desire for peace, for the recent horror of war was still fresh in the minds of many after the collapse and defeat of France in the spring of 1814.Napoleon needed peace too, in order to restore confidence to the French people, but also to secure himself as ruler of France.As a realist, Napoleon must have known that the chances of securing peace were fragile; that the Allies would never permit him to rule within France's borders. But the effort had to be made anyway on behalf of the French people and for himself, for he desired to be seen as the victim of the Allies agressive intentions. Without much optimism and hoping against hope that the peace could be maintained, Napoleon made overtures to the major powers of Britain, Austria, Russia and Prussia by trying to reassure them of his his peacefull intentions. But his overtures were rejected. The cold stance of the Allies was perfectly clear. War was inevitable and Napoleon felt morally justified in preparing for a new war. Only by war could he restore his fortunes and secure his future as leader of the French nation. Any hopes that Napoleon's overtures might be received favourably were dashed by the rash actions of his brother-in-law Joachim Murat, who in an attempt to curry favour with his former master, but without consideration of his actions, declared war on Austria and promptly advanced on Rome with 40,000 men and 56 guns. At first, Murat's expedition to liberate Italy met with success as the Pope fled to Genoa and his troops occupied Florence, but Austrian forces were mobilising and Murat was decisively defeated at the Battle of Tolentino on May 2nd. Fleeing to France, Murat's repeated offer of his sabre to his brother-in-law met with an icy silence for Napoleon was incensed at Murat's rash stupidity which he saw as squandering his peace overtures by pre-empting a new war. Murat kicked his heels around Lyon's unemployed, but his services at Waterloo as a unsurpassed leader of cavalry would be sorely missed. Napoleon at once employed his formidable energies and organisational skills into mobilising for a war of survival as he saw it, and by June the impossible had been achieved with the help of Marshal Davout, whom he had appointed minister of war and military governor of Paris. Davout, the victor of Auerstadt in 1806, was a warrior rather than an administative clerk; indeed one of his finest fighting generals, and he made it known that he would prefer a field command. Unrelenting to Davout's wishes Napoleon needed someone to instill 'backbone' into Paris if he were obliged to leave the capital and take to the field once again against his enemies. Ruthlessly efficient, loyal to the extreme and ebued with an iron will in seeing a job finished, Davout was that man. Only Davout could be entrusted to safeguard the capital in his absence. To meet the hostile intentions of the Allies, Napoleon had managed to assemble 232,000 men at arms, ressurecting in the process of filling the ranks of his newly reformed Grande Armee such notable units as the elite Old Guard which would form the backbone of the army. As in 1805, Napoleon needed a great victory that would ensure his survival. Nothing less than a stunning success could restore his military reputation, his fortunes and fill the nations empty treasury. Two choices were thus open to Napoleon. He could either attack the Allies before they had a chance to organise against him or else he could sit back to wait for the Allies to come to him and defend against their encroaching forces in the style of the 1814 campaign. Whilst the latter plan was attractive for it might enable him to build up and train his forces, he was also aware that this strategy had failed the previous year. Much more attractive to Napoleon was the first plan, and he intended to seize thew initiative first by assuming the offensive before the Allies could possibly have time to bring their superior forces to bear against him. Since Wellington, commanding the Anglo-Dutch army which he estimated at being some 105,000 strong and Blucher's Prussian army which he likewise estimated having in excess of 120,000 men were the nearest within striking range deployed in Belgium, Napoleon planned that this was where his axe would fall first. But, in order to strike at the two allied armies, Napoleon would have to split his total available manpower of 232,000 men in order to leave sizeable fighting units upon the frontiers to pin and to hold the encroaching Austrians and Russians whilst he dealt with both Wellington and Blucher. Of his 232,000 men, only 128,000 men would be available to launch his campaign in the north. Thus, Napoleon would be at a numerical disadvantage from the start. To fight a united Anglo-Dutch and Prussian army would be to court disaster therefore, but Napoleon had a concept called the 'Strategy of the Central position' which could offset this. It was easier to attempt than to achieve and a lot would rely on speed and surprise , but Napoleon was confident he could pull it off. The strategy entailed splitting the two armies apart by slicing between them. Moving against one army with his main strength to defeat them, Napoleon would detach a smaller, token force to pin and hold the other force to prevent it from intervening. With his primary foe defeated and in retreat, Napoleon would then march his main body to rejoin his detached force and then force the secondary enemy army to a battle of annihilation. Napoleon anticipated a short and sharp victorious campaign in which he would defeat and throw back the two Allied armies and subsequently occupy Brussels, after which he was confident the Belgians would rise to declare for him. With the defeat of their most celebrated general and the destruction of their army, the English government that was hostile to him might well collapse like a pack of cards, to be replaced by a party more sympathetic towards him. With the Prussians likewise reeeling back upon their lines of communications to the Rhine, perhaps in utter defeat, only the Austrians and the Russians would be left to deal with. Maybe a great victory, another Austerlitz in Belgium would prove enough to give the Allies food for thought. With England defeated was not inconcievable that the union binding them might break as each power broke away to pursue their own interests. In the event that the Russians and Austrians still showed the inclination to fight as they fell upon General Rapp and Marshal Suchet guarding the Eastern frontier, Napoleon considered he would be well placed in Belgium to fall southwards upon their flanks and rear, cutting their supply lines from their bases. In the unlikely event that his lightning strike against Belgium failed, Napoleon reasoned that he could still fall back on his secondary strategy to redeploy his forces before Paris and Lyons to fight a repetition of the 1814 campaign with a still reasonable chance of success. Mindful of the betrayal and intrique that had enabled the swift capitualtion of Paris to the Allies the year before, Napoleon was confident that the loyal and dependable Davout could safeguard the city against any possible repeat of the previous years treachery. Secure in the knowledge that his capital was in capable hands, Napoleon departed Paris in the early hours of the 12th of June to rejoin his army at Beaumont near the Belgium border where it was poised to strike at the Anglo-Dutch and Prussian armies. The Commanders and their Armies The Emperor Napoleon "In this age, in past ages, in any age, Napoleon." -The Duke of Wellington when asked who had been the greatest general of the age. Napoleon in 1815 was still the greatest military commander in Europe, his reputation easily eclipsing that of his two opponents despite his recent fall from grace. For many years, Napoleon had adhered to a style of warfare that was truly 'Blitzkreig' in it's nature. Speed was an essential ingredient of his formula as well as concentration and overwhelming force. Typically, he would move his legions with lightening speed to close on the enemy who would be thrown of balance by the rapidity of his advance. Having gained the initiative before the enemy could react, Napoleon would then seek to deliver the 'coup d' grace' by fighting the decisive battle that would end the war. With an insight to strategy on the grand scale that was breathtaking and an instinctive intuition for war that was probably unsurpassed, Napoleon held to this successful formula which brought him victory after victory. But familarity breeds contempt, and his enemies eventually learnt from their mistakes to develop counter measures to his varilous ploys and tactics. It is noteworthy that after 1809, although he still won the overwhelming majority of the battle he fought, he still nonetheless failed to win a campaign outright as his style of warefare was diluted by the enlightenment of his opponents. In sum, he was eventually brought down not by his own failing powers, but by the steady evolution of his opponents as his own stagnated. On St-Helena Napoleon boasted "I have fought over sixty battles and I learnt nothing that I did not know in the beginning." ''It was an awful admission to make, which showed within a brief moment one of the key reasons for his defeat. Another factor which was to dilute Napoleon's generalship at Waterloo and to ultimately affect the outcome of the campaign was the fact that Napoleon in 1815 was no longer the all dynamic and decisive leader he had once been. The struggles of the past two years seemed to weigh heavily upon him. After so many reverses since the Retreat from Russia, his old unwavering confidence in himself appeared shaken and he experienced periods of self doubt which he tried to mask behind bold and authorative outbursts. Much controversy also rages as to the state of his health during the Hundred Days and the Waterloo Campaign. In his book, One Hundred Days - Napoleon's Road to Waterloo, Alan Schom writes that "Ever since his attempted suicide attempt the year before, a handkerchief was constantly ready to control the flow of saliva seeping from the corner of his mouth. His breathing was hard and irregular and often interrupted by a cough." This description of Napoleon in 1815 is also echoed in Stepen Coote's book, Napoleon and the Hundred Days. Ceratinly his legendary stamina seemed to desert Napoleon on several crucial occasions during the Waterloo Campaign, but this may have been the result of nervous exhaustion brought about by the tremendous pressures upon his shoulders, for since his return to France, he had almost single handedly wrestled with the titanic task of restructuring the nations finances; and of binding the people to his banner in order mobilize and meet the hostile intentions of the Allies. With heroic resolve and energy, he subjected himself to a gruelling eighteen hour a day work schedule with little rest, snatching a brief few hours sleep when he could. When his doctor became alarmed and urged him to rest, he snapped back, "I have not got the time."'' At forty six years of age, Napoleon displayed a level of activity which would have daunted a much younger man and this alone belies any notion that Napoleon was suffering from any serious ill health even if he was in fact unwell during the night of the 16th/17th of June after the Battle of Ligny, and possibly still at Waterloo on the 18th. The Duke of Wellington "Wellington in the management of an army is fully the equal of myself, with the added advantage of possessing more prudence." -''Napoleon If Napoleon enjoyed the greater reputation of military prowess, then Arthur Wellesley, the 1st Duke of Wellington enjoyed the distinction in 1815 of never having lost a battle. He perhaps lacked Napoleon's genius for strategy on a grand scale which had enabled the French Emperor to dominate Europe, but in tactical affairs he was a master of his trade who was fully his opponents equal. In the sphere of minor tactics, ie the personal handling of bodies of troops down to a brigade level on the battlefield, he was his Napoleon's better since upon becoming Emperor in 1804, Napoleon had increasingly been unable to devote himself to the level of micro-management that Wellington could enjoy, becoming increasingly reliant to delegate battlefield responsibilities to his subordinates, and In some respects, the Emperor Napoleon was the death of General Bonaparte. Wellington had learned many valuable lessons about how to wage war in India in the years 1797-1805. These crucial years honing his military skills stood him in good stead, providing a foundation to take on the French conquerors of Europe in the Spanish Penninsula where he proved once and for all to an astounded Europe that the French were not invincible after all, by taking on and beating every French Marshal sent against him. Soon The French themseves had begun to develop a healthy respect for him, half admiringly calling him ''"Monsieur Villainton," ''whilst to his own troops he was known as ''"Old Hookey" ''in reference to his hooked nose, or the "Bugger that beats the French." To his own officers he was known as ''"The Peer." In many ways Napoleon and Wellington were the antithesis of one another. Napoleon was a master of strategy and of the offensive art of war. He led by his sheer charisma which spoke to the soul to electrify the fighting men. Wellington was a master of tactics and of the defensive battle, although he could fight a superb offensive battle if he so wished. His style of warfare was characterised by careful, methodical approach as well as logic as opposed to Napoleon's intuitive grasp of warefare which amounted to genius. The French Army Numbering 128,000 men and 366 artillery pieces, The 'Armee du Nord' as he had designated it for his forthcoming campaign, was quite possibly one of the most formidable he had ever commanded; the backbone of the army composed as it was of a large percentage of of seasoned veterans and soldiers whom had fought in at least one previous campaign. Many of the raw conscripts of 1814 were now considered old soldiers and suffering from their wounded and battered pride, many had joined up volunarily, eager to rejoin the Imperial eagles and march beneath the Emperor's banner once to avenge the indignities and humiliations of their defeat in 1813/14. Morale was superb and expectations were high. All in all it was a truly formidable and nationalistic army composed almost exclusively of Frenchmen; an army of which Napoleon could be proud. And yet, despite it's impressive and imposing potential, it's fatal flaw lie beneath the surface for it was irredeemably divided in it's unity. Mistrust and a fear of treachery stalked its ranks, for the die-hard Bonapartists viewed with scorn and suspicion those who had so eagerly accepted and served the Bourbon monarchy. This fear of betrayal would ultimately contribute to the army's undoing at the final hour at Waterloo. The army itself was divided into five army corps led respectively by General's D'Erlon, Reille, Vandamme, Gerard and Lobau. It was supported by four reserve corps of cavalry, led by General's Pajol, Exelmans, Kellerman and Milhaud. Each of the five army corps was in effect a miniature army in themselves, comprised of infantry, cavalry and artillery. Napoleon believed that a solitary corps finding itself faced by the enemy had the means to fight independantly, at least until neighbouring corps could arrive and reinforce it. In addition, the army comprised of a 25,000 strong reserve of the elite Imperial Guard which fell under Napoleon's personal command. This formidable reserve was also comprised of all arms and the infantry was divided into the Old, Middle and Young Guard. "Dont use the Marshals," an old soldier wrote to Napoleon upon his return. To be sure, after a decade of war, the Marshalate which was created in 1804 was largely 'washed out.' Many were dead, too old or just simply lacked the incentive after being heaped with honours and titles as well as vast estates to now risk their lives in a new and uncertain war. Either they remained loyal to Louis XVIII or else they retired to their estates in neutrality. In either case, they were simply struck off the list of Marshals. Napoleon was far sighted enough to see the merits of raising junior officers up through the ranks who were still hungry to succeed, but for reasons of prestiege and in view of his still shaky throne, Napoleon still needed the support of the big names that were still willing to offer their services to him. Marshal Davout and Marshal Suchet, two of Napoleon's most gifted commanders who did return to him were not destined to take to the field in Napoleon's last campaign. In Napoleon's absence in Belgium, the utterly loyal Davout was deemed indispensable by the Emperor in safeguarding Paris against a repeat of the intrique and betrayal which had helped defeat Napoleon the previous spring. Likewise, Suchet who had enjoyed the greatest successes in the Pennisula War, was also kept far away, being given independant command of the 'Armee d' Alpes' comprising of 23,500 men in south-eastern France where he was to link up with Marshal Brune's pathetic skeleton force of 5,500 men and attempt to stem the tide of an anticipated onslaught by 70,000 Austrian and Italian troops. The military talents of Davout and Suchet would be sorely missed during the Waterloo Campaign, but perhaps Napoleon deliberately left them behind in order to throw his own anticipated success into a sharper focus , for in 1815, as already mentioned, Napoleon desperately needed a stunning success on his own merit in order to both restore his damaged military reputation and to cow the hostile crowned heads of Europe. Certainly it seemed as if Napoleon fielded a second rate team, at least in the higher echelons of command and this would seem to support this view, although it could also be said that Napoleon may have took both Marshal Soult as his Chief of Staff and Marshal Ney to command his left wing along with him to enable him to keep a watchful eye on them. Both men had been proven to be individuals of no fixed loyalties, happily swapping sides when and if opportunities favoured them. Perhaps Napoleon's biggest loss for the campaign in 1815 was the absence of Marshal Berthier as his Chief of Staff. All through the glory years of the Empire, Berthier had superbly translated Napoleon's intentions and plans to the various army corps, contributing to the stunning successes of the Grande Armee. Berthier's replacement, Marshal Soult was no substitute, having had little or no administrative experience and the campaign would be hindered by his vague and contradictive orders which would be misplaced, arrive late or not at all. Indeed, as soon as the campaign opened it would almost be derailed by his shoddy staffwork. Soult was an outstanding field commander and given that he had personaly fought Wellington in the Spanish Penninsula and knew his likely tricks and stratagems, would have been an ideal choice for command of the left wing, but that went to Ney... Marshal Ney was invited at the last moment to be "present at the first battles" as Napoleon rode off to war. Ney would arrive at the front after the campaign had already got underway to be told little by Napoleon about the broad concept of campaign, except to be informed that he was being given command of the left wing. Ney rode off to take up his command very still much in the dark as to what Napoleon expected of him. While Ney was a courageous man, perhaps second to none, his ability to think along strategic lines in order to bring success was limited by his impulsive character. On form, Ney could be breathtaking, but by 1815 Ney's conduct on campaign was to wildly fluctuate, being interspersed with periods of impetuous activity and lethargy. The last of the key commanders was that of the newly appointed Marshal Grouchy. Being given his Marshal's baton on Napoleon's return to power, Grouchy was given command of the right wing. As a leader of cavalry, Grouchy was perhaps second only to Murat himself in expertise of handling mounted divisions, but he had never before tasted independant command of a mixed force of infantry, cavalry and artillery, and he would soon find himself out of his depth. To make matters worse he was placed in rank above two subordinates in the form of General's Vandamme and Gerard who resenting being placed under a man whom they considered inferior to their own suitabilility to command, would only serve him with scornful reluctance. External links Category:Battles of the War of the Seventh Coalition Category:Battles of the Napoleonic Wars Category:Events of 1815